R.E.
Intent:
We have designed our RE Curriculum to prepare our pupils for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of life in modern Britain. Religious Education has an important and central place within our curriculum as a whole. As well as the study of Christianity as a living and diverse faith, our curriculum includes learning about a range of religions and worldviews, fostering respect for others.
Our RE curriculum is taught through the strands of Believing, Expressing and Living.
We aim to ensure that all pupils:
- Know about and understand a range of religions and worldviews.
- Express ideas and insights about the nature, significance and impact of religions and worldviews.
- Gain and deploy the skills needed to engage seriously with religions and worldviews.
At Sessay RE is a lively, active subject, we employ a variety of teaching methods including art; music; discussion; the development of thinking skills; drama; the use of artefacts, pictures, stories; the use of periods of stillness and reflection. Concepts and values are explored both through discrete RE lessons, Faith Days, Curriculum Enrichment Days, visitors and visits to local places of worship or enrichment.
Implementation:
RE at Sessay is taught through discrete RE lessons weekly and wherever possible, children visit linked places of worship, or meet those of the faith which they are discussing. Where comfortable, we invite children and families of faith to share their faith and family life to root children’s understanding within their own community.
- The RE curriculum is extended and supplemented by a range of units from the ‘Understanding Christianity’ resource.
- RE substantive knowledge is taught explicitly through direct teaching of key knowledge, using the NYCC Agreed RE Syllabus. This was chosen, after extensive research, as it is progressive and reflects a range of religions, as well as non-religious world views. It was revised in the light of the OFSTED RE research review of 2021 and it allows children to develop and build on their prior learning.
- Children will interrogate and investigate key religious texts and stories or works of art in order to develop their own response to religious works, this includes drama, art and visits.
- Children will discuss, question and make links to themselves, others and between faiths with respect and confidence.
Impact:
The children at Sessay enjoy learning about other religions and why people choose, or choose not to follow a religion. Through their R.E. learning, the children are able:
- to make links between their own lives and those of others in their community and in the wider world
- develop an understanding of other people’s cultures and ways of life
- extend their knowledge and understanding of religions and beliefs
- develop a religious vocabulary and interpret religious symbolism in a variety of forms
- reflect on questions of meaning, offering their own thoughtful and informed insights into religious and secular world-views
- explore ultimate questions of beliefs and values in relation to a range of contemporary issues in an ever-changing society
As such, R.E. is invaluable in an ever changing and shrinking world.
